Viral BCS video leads to sexual battery arrest

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Brian Downing is escorted by detectives for booking on charges of sexual battery and obscenity at the New Orleans Police Department headquarters in New Orleans, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - An Alabama man was arrested late Wednesday in connection with a video appearing to show someone in a University of Alabama jacket abusing an unconscious Louisiana State University fan after Alabama beat LSU for the BCS football championship.

Brian Downing, 32, of Smiths Station, Ala., was booked on charges of sexual battery and obscenity. He was videotaped Jan. 9 "placing his genitals on an LSU fan's face. The LSU fan appears to be heavily inebriated and practically unconscious," a police statement said.

That videotape, the last minute of which shows a man in a red Alabama jacket simulating a sex act, went viral on the Internet.

Police said sex crimes detectives met Downing at his attorney's office in New Orleans, where officers arrested him. Downing looked at the ground as officers escorted him in handcuffs into the jail. Neither he nor the officers answered questions.

They said LSU and Alabama University campus police helped them collect information and evidence needed to get a warrant for Downing's arrest.

Downing is a second cousin of Russell County, Ala., Sheriff Heath Taylor, who earlier Thursday had said Downing was on his way from Alabama to New Orleans to surrender.

Taylor told The Associated Press that he learned from other family members Thursday morning that Downing had been identified as the man shown exposing himself and then simulating a sex act above the head of an apparently unconscious man in an LSU-purple shirt. Taylor said he had not seen the video or asked Downing about the case.

After hearing from his relatives, Taylor said, he called Downing's dad and told him to bring him to the sheriff's office in Phenix City, Ala. He said he then called New Orleans police to ask whether they wanted him to jail and extradite Downing or send him to New Orleans to surrender. "New Orleans made that call," he said.

Taylor said he did not speak to Downing. "I gave his attorney the card with the detective's name on it and cell number."

The relationship was first reported by the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, Ga., which is about nine miles east-northeast from Phenix City.

Scott Myers, a spokesman for Birmingham, Ala.-based Hibbett Sports Inc., confirmed Thursday that the company fired Downing on Wednesday because of his part in the video.

He said the company had been aware of the tape but did not identify the person on it until Wednesday. He refused to say what the man did for Hibbett or how the company became aware of his alleged involvement. Hibbett Sports lists about 800 stores in 26 states.

"We were made aware of this situation late yesterday afternoon. We conducted our own investigation, and after the investigation was concluded, we made the determination to terminate his employment," Myers said.

Taylor said that when he heard the allegation, he had no choice but to arrest Downing or send him to New Orleans. "I wasn't going to let anybody say that because he's my family I wasn't doing anything about it."

It wasn't a hard decision, he said. "You've just got to do the right thing."